DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 19/096,719. Claims 1-9 are pending in the application.
Claims 6-9 have been withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
The applicant’s amendment filed August 17, 2026 has been entered.
Election/Restrictions
A restriction requirement was sent to the Applicant on June 30, 2026. The Applicant was required to elect among several groups of inventions. The Applicant responded to the restriction requirement on August 17, 2026 and elected Group I, claims 1-5. Since the election was not made with traverse, it is treated as being made without traverse.
Accordingly, claims 6-9 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. § 112 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
(b) CONCLUSION.-The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because it is inconsistent with claim 1. Claim 1 requires a composite hydroxide. Claim 2 requires a metallic compound of formula (i) which does not include hydroxide. As a result, it is unclear what is required by claim 2.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because it conflicts with claim 1. The method of claim 1 produces a composite hydroxide. It does not produce an composite oxide. It is unclear what is meant by producing a composite oxide by the method of claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. § 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1 and 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Kaneda et al (US 2018/0316006).
Kaneda et al teaches a method of making a Ni-Mn composite hydroxide (par. 61). The method includes a nucleation step and a particle growth step (par. 62). The nucleation step includes providing an aqueous solution of a nickel compound and a manganese compound, ammonia, and sodium hydroxide (par. 65, 67). Nucleation occurs at a pH of 12-14 and a temperature of 25 °C (par. 67, 71). The ammonium ion concentration for nucleation is 3-25 g/L (par. 68). Particle growth occurs at a lower pH of 10.5-12 and a temperature of 25 °C (par. 78). The ammonium ion concentration for particle growth is 3-25 g/L (par. 80). The ammonium ion concentration can be adjusted to different values in the nucleation phase and the growth phase (par. 85-86).
The claimed concentration ranges of 5.3-11.7 g/L and 20.0-26.4 g/L are obvious over the prior art range of 3-25 g/L because the prior art range encompasses or substantially overlaps the claimed ranges and Kaneda et al teaches that the ammonium ion concentration can be adjusted to different values in the nucleation phase and the growth phase (par. 85-86).
Nucleation and growth occur in a non-oxygen atmosphere (par. 113). A person of ordinary skill in the art would understand a non-oxygen atmosphere to be a non-oxidizing atmosphere.
The composite hydroxide is used to form a composite oxide (par. 192). Pulverizing is not required.
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000./WILLIAM D YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761 September 14, 2026
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